Saturday, February 25, 2012

Luis Aragonés

José Luis Aragonés Suárez (born July 28, 1938), usually referred to as Luis Aragonés and sometimes simply as Luis, is a former Spanish footballer and national coach.

Aragonés has spent the majority of his career as a player and coach at Atlético Madrid. He was a prominent player and then coach of the successful Atlético team of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The team won La Liga four times, reached the final of the European Cup and won the Intercontinental Cup. Between 1964 and 1974 he played 265 La Liga games for Atlético and scored 123 goals. Aragonés has coached the club on four separate occasions. He has also played with several other clubs, most notably Real Betis, and played 11 times for Spain, scoring three goals. Apart from Atlético he has also coached seven other La Liga clubs as well as the Spanish national football team whom he led to their 2nd European Championship title in 2008. He became the head coach of the Turkish football team Fenerbahçe after Euro 2008, and this is the first time that Aragonés has coached outside of his native Spain.